Sustainability Focus Areas

Introduction

Borealis processes large quantities of flammable and/or toxic materials under high pressure and temperatures, which, if not handled properly, could lead to process safety incidents. In a worst-case scenario, leaks, fires or explosions could severely harm people’s health or cause fatalities, both inside and outside Borealis, as well as causing environmental pollution. This could also disrupt supply to customers, with a consequent financial impact on Borealis. It is therefore of the utmost importance for Borealis to invest in process safety and to properly design, maintain and operate its plants.

The Seveso Directive is the main EU regulation dealing with the control of onshore major accident hazards involving dangerous substances. In line with this directive, Borealis works closely with national authorities and emergency organisations to ensure the safe operation of its plants and maintain a high level of preparedness in case of incidents. The Group also actively supports industry-wide efforts to enhance process safety, as a member of the European Process Safety Centre.

To reach Borealis’ objective of achieving zero accidents, the Group has put in place its Goal Zero programme. This covers both occupational health and safety and process safety, and is a key deliverable of the Group’s Sustainability Strategy. As Borealis employees are encouraged to see Goal Zero as a journey to be taken together, the programme helps establish a collective health and safety mindset.

Governance

The Group Process Safety department has developed a process safety management system that enhances risk identification and mitigation. The Group policies that are relevant to process safety are the Risk Management Policy and the Responsible Care® Policy. The Risk Management Policy defines Borealis’ risk management framework by providing principles, roles and responsibilities, and guidelines for risk assessment, mitigation and reporting. The policy aims to ensure the implementation of sound risk management practices at all levels across the Group. The Responsible Care Policy statement sets out the guiding principles for the Group-wide implementation of Responsible Care at Borealis.

The Executive Vice President Base Chemicals and Operations chairs the Group-level Process Safety Committee. The Committee’s members are directors and departmental leaders from all of the relevant operational streams: Group Health, Safety, Environment & Quality, Manufacturing Excellence, Operations Polyolefins and Operations Hydrocarbons and Project & Expert Support. Each production location also has its own health, safety and environment (HSE) Assurance Team, chaired by a nominee appointed by local management. Its members come from different areas within the location, to ensure cross-learning and a link to Group developments.

Assurance Teams meet regularly to oversee Borealis’ process safety performance and programme, steer the Group’s process safety Goal Zero roadmap, review progress and provide guidance on priorities, key activities and performance measures. Priorities are identified based on reoccurring or severe incidents, leading to a programme being launched by multi-functional teams to improve performance. These teams determine best practice and roll it out in the locations, with support and supervision from Group Process Safety. Group Process Safety also takes an active role in resolving challenges for Borealis’ growth projects, by providing its expertise in an early-stage study.

In addition to being an active member of the European Process Safety Centre, sharing lessons from incidents and supporting process safety developments, Borealis also takes part in a number of forums related to process safety. These include the High Pressure Safety Conference, Fertilizers Europe, the European Ethylene Producers Conference and the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) Plant & Process Safety Network. Borealis also exchanges information with other companies to assess the best technical solutions for preventing and mitigating the escalation of major process safety incidents and scenarios.

Activities 2022

In 2022, Borealis undertook a wide range of activities, which were designed to further improve its process safety performance. In particular, PO and HC&E:

• started to roll out a Process Safety Roadmap, which is a five-year plan of critical Process Safety activities needed to close identified gaps in technical and process safety management, in a structured way across all locations, followed by training;
• continued to develop the Group’s process safety competency by conducting Process Safety in Design and Hazard Study Leader training, and following up Process Safety Basics e-learning, which OMV Group shared with Borealis;
• finalised a quantitative risk analysis (QRA) in Porvoo, Finland, which is a methodology for assessing the probability and potential consequences of all possible chemical release scenarios. This makes it possible to identify risk profiles in different areas inside and outside the location, with the goal of reducing the overall exposure risk of Borealis’ employees and contractors.
• developed and issued an internal ATEX guideline on minimum requirements for improving the protection of workers potentially at risk from explosive atmospheres (ATEX stands for Appareils destinés à être utilisés en ATmosphères EXplosibles or “equipment intended for use in explosive atmospheres”); and
• developed virtual training based on a new concept (Play it Safe) for the Group’s Process Safety Rules and coordinated cross-learning sessions on liquid ammonia and hydrocarbon loading incidents in the industry.

The Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN business:

• conducted a deep dive on one of the Process Safety Rules (“Bypassing of Interlocks”) by performing internal health checks at several locations; and
• developed and implemented a guideline for handling the hazards of natural gas powered trucks at fertilizer locations.

Process Safety Audits

• Borealis Blue Audits are an internal audit of a location’s HSE systems and requirements.
• In 2022, these were conducted in Monza (Italy), Porvoo (Finland) and Geleen (The Netherlands), as well as the Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN location in Linz (Austria).
• In preparation for its divestment from Borealis, Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN also developed its own safety audit concept, with a strong focus on process safety.

In addition, four internal health checks were completed on Layer of Protection Analysis in Antwerp (Belgium), Kallo (Belgium), Linz (Austria) and Porvoo (Finland), and DNV, the world’s largest classification body for vessels and mobile offshore units, carried out an external process safety management audit in Stenungsund.

Furthermore, Borealis’ insurance brokers conducted six major surveys and one follow-up survey. All of these audits reassured the Group’s insurance brokers that the Group has a well-managed process to prevent and limit the impact of incidents.

Based on lessons from the fire in 2020 at the Stenungsund cracker, Borealis is closely following-up and implementing actions defined in the risk reduction programme, including elements such as process safety competence, enhancing the project hazard review process and initiating actions to reduce the risk landscape of the location, as well as rolling out a Group-wide assessment of the protection layers for large machines.

Performance 2022

Borealis uses a Loss of Primary Containment Pyramid tool to support the monitoring of incidents, ensure they are investigated and that actions are completed in time to prevent reoccurrence.

Borealis’ Loss of Primary Containment Pyramid

The pyramid includes the performance of the safety-critical processes designed to prevent accidents. This performance is measured using indicators such as the status of safetycritical inspections, the testing of critical interlocks and the closure of actions. The leading indicators are followed up annually through a “deep dive” into overall performance and review by the Process Safety Committee. As well as using its own process safety incident rating tool, Borealis tracks process safety incidents according to Cefic (the European Chemicals Industry Council) standards.

High-severity (Tier 1) accidents would include, for example, a large fire or explosion resulting in injuries or fatalities, and significant business loss and impact on the environment.

Medium-severity (Tier 2) accidents are those resulting in a loss of containment, with medium consequences for people, planet and profit. A medium-severity accident would normally result in limited injuries, easy-to-repair damage and a controllable environmental impact.

Low-severity (Tier 3) accidents are those where substances are released but which result in a very low to zero impact.

In 2022, the Group’s target was to have a maximum of 21 Tier 1 and Tier 2 accidents.

In 2022, 3 (HC/PO) and 1 (Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN) Tier 1 accidents were reported. 8 (HC/PO) and 4 (Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN) Tier 2 accidents and 473 (HC/PO) and 209 (Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN) Tier 3 low-severity process safety accidents were reported, along with 517 (HC/PO) and 118 (Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN) process safety near misses, of which 2 (HC/PO) and 1 (Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN) were process safetyrelated with high potential.

As general process safety awareness increases due to Borealis’ educational initiatives and campaigns, more low-severity accidents are being reported.

The process safety response rate measures the number of actions closed against the number due to be closed on a 12-month rolling basis. Including all actions for 2022, the response rate for December was 91% (HC/PO) and 92% (Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN) (2021: 91.7%; 2020: 92.7%). A total of 1,012 (HC/PO) and 533 (Fertilizers, Melamine and TEN) actions were implemented in response to high-, medium- and low-severity accidents.

Process safety performance indicators 2018–2022 ^{1) 2)}

1) Definitions were adjusted in 2021 to be aligned with OMV definitions. A comparison to previous years is therefore not possible. // 2) Rosier data is tracked in Synergi and recorded monthly in the LOPC Pyramid. For Rosier no Tier 1 & 2 accidents were reported in 2022.

Definitions

Response rate of process safety incidents: Process safety incidents of a certain severity or risk potential are recorded and investigated through root cause analysis. Corrective actions are defined to prevent re-occurrence. The response rate of process safety incidents is measured as the ratio (%) of corrective actions completed within a defined time period.
High-severity accidents: are Tier 1 accidents according to API RP754;
Medium-severity accidents: are Tier 2 accidents according to API RP754.

Outlook

During 2023, Group Process Safety will focus on the following areas:

• undertaking a Process Safety Event (PSE) Tier 1 and Tier 2 analysis, including an impact assessment, to assess the greatest opportunities for risk reduction and work out an action plan;
• revision of risk register based on aligned Borealis OMV risk matrix for HSSE
• conducting a quantitative risk analysis (QRA) in Beringen, Belgium to assess all possible release scenarios from a probability and consequence perspective and identify risk profiles at different locations inside and outside the site, with the goal of reducing the overall exposure of employees and contractors; and
• continuing the process safety management audits by DNV in 2023 at a Group level and in one location. The HSSE group will also conduct internal health checks on process safety-related elements and a process safety review in the Borealis Blue Audits.